William Price makes the last 16 at the Essex Open

On a chilly Saturday morning, two car fulls of Saxon fencers made their way to the Essex Open (147 fencers) for the first tournament of the senior domestic season.  The day didn’t get off to the best start, but with an entry list boasting one Olympian and five other fencers ranked in the top 10 of the British Fencing rankings the poules were predictably tough and read as follows:

50th V4D2 – William Price

61st V3D3 – Nick Mort

67th V3D3 – Christopher Mollard

94th V2D4 – Patrick Dempsey

95th V2D4 – Paul Lowen

117th V1D5 – Paul Harden

In the last 128, William was the only fencer who prevailed by winning 15 – 11 against a nemesis in his age group.  Nick fell 15-7 to Luke Deamer in a hard fought fight where the score did not reflect the performance.  Christopher lost 15-13 to Alex Schwindlein, Patrick lost out to Paul Stanbridge, Paul Lowen lost also and Paul Harden went out to Jacques Viljoen of South Africa.

In the last 64, William drew Scott Brodie (who was recently selected to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Fencing Championships) and overcoming him 15 – 6.  In the last 32 William found himself fencing Charlie St John and narrowly coming through 15-14 after having lead 14-11.  William’s last 16 opponent Alex Lim (Canadian national team member) played a tactical game and used pacivity as a way of shortening the match to his advantage.  He came through 15-6.

Final results

L16 – William Price

L128 – Nick Mort

L128 – Christopher Mollard

L128 – Patrick Dempsey

L128 – Paul Lowen

L128 – Paul Harden

Intermediate Tournament

Gold – Michael Lown